Radiocommunication Module Executing a Main Software and a Client Software Comprising Several Client Applications

1. Radiocommunication device comprising: a processor and memory hosting and executing a main software application that in particular performs radiocommunication functions, the main software application comprising means of executing driver commands sent to the main software application by at least one client driver software application and belonging to a predetermined set of driver commands, wherein the processor and memory of the radiocommunication device also host and execute at least one client embedded software application, comprising a client main application and at least one client secondary application, slave of the client main application, the processing done by the client embedded software application being distributed between the client main application and the at least one client secondary application, and wherein the client embedded software application and the main software application comprise means of enabling the client embedded software application to perform at least one of the following two roles when executed by the processor: the role of a client driver software application sending driver commands to the main software application, and receiving responses from the main software application resulting from the execution of some of the driver commands; and the role of a client supervision software application, managing execution of driver commands sent by a client driver software application, called the client external software application, hosted on and executed by terminal equipment cooperating with the radiocommunication device.

2. Radiocommunication device according to claim 1 , wherein the client software application comprises a binary file containing the client main application and the at least one client secondary application.

3. Radiocommunication device according to claim 1 , wherein the client software application comprises a first binary file containing the client main application and at least a second binary file, each containing at least one client secondary application.

4. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the following features are provided to enable the client embedded software application to act as client driver software application: the client embedded software application comprises means of sending driver commands to execution means included in the main software application; the main software application comprises means of sending responses resulting from the execution of some driver commands by the execution means included in the main software application, to the client embedded software application; the client embedded software application comprises means of processing responses sent to it by the main software application.

5. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the following features are provided to enable the client embedded software application to act as the client supervision software application: the main software application comprises means of preparsing commands as a function of a determined preparsing policy, so as to transmit driver commands from the client external software application to the client embedded software application and/or to execution means contained in the main software application; the client embedded software application includes means of processing driver commands switched to it by the preparsing means.

6. Radiocommunication device according to claim 5 , wherein the client embedded software application comprises means of selecting the preparsing policy applied by the preparsing means, among a set of preparsing policies as: driver commands originating from the client external software application are sent only to execution means within the main software application; driver commands originating from the client external software application are sent only to the client embedded software application; driver commands originating from the client external software application are sent to the execution means included in the main software application and to the client embedded software application.

7. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the command processing means take at least one decision for each command, belonging to the group including: send the driver command to the execution means included in the main software application, the client embedded software application comprising means of sending driver commands to the execution means for this purpose; supply or do not supply a response, only as a function of at least one item of information about the command, without executing the command, the client embedded software application comprising means of sending the response to the client external software application for this purpose through the main software application.

8. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, in order to enable the client embedded software application to act as the client supervision software application: the main software application comprises means of preparsing responses as a function of a determined response preparsing policy, so as to transmit responses resulting from the execution of some driver commands by execution means included in the main software application, to the client embedded software application and or to the client external software application; the client embedded software application comprises means of processing responses switched to it by the response preparsing means.

9. Radiocommunication device according to claim 8 , wherein the client embedded software application comprises means of selecting the response preparsing policy applied by the response preparsing means, among a set of response preparsing policies as: responses originating from execution means are transmitted only to the client external software application; responses originating from execution means are transmitted only to the client embedded software application; responses originating from execution means are transmitted to the client embedded software application and to the client external software application.

10. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein it is included within a device belonging to the following group: radiocommunication terminals; devices other than radiocommunication terminals necessitating a wireless communication feature; modems.

11. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the main software application comprises at least one main application associated with a set of execution functions, each enabling the execution of at least one of the driver commands, in that each of the client main and secondary applications is associated with a set of source functions, each enabling sending or receiving driver commands or responses to driver commands, to or from the main application, and wherein the main software application and/or the client embedded software application comprise an application interface used to interface the source functions with the execution functions.

12. Radiocommunication device according to claim 11 , wherein the set of source functions associated with the client main application in particular comprises a client main application initialisation source function that is called when the radiocommunication device is started.

13. Radiocommunication device according to claim 12 , wherein the set of source functions associated with the client main application comprises a source function for subscription to a service for sending messages originating from the main software application and wherein, at the time of this subscription, the client main application sends the address of a message processing source function in which the client main application would like to receive messages from the main software application, to the main software application.

14. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the set of source functions associated with the client secondary application comprises a source function for initialisation of the client secondary application that is called by the client main application.

15. Radiocommunication device according to claim 14 , wherein the set of source functions associated with the client secondary application comprises a source function for subscription to a service for sending messages originating from the main software application and wherein, at the time of this subscription, the client secondary application sends the address of a source message processing function to the main software application, in which the client secondary application would like to receive messages originating from the main software application.

16. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the source initialisation function of the client secondary application comprises at least one parameter enabling the use of a dialogue mechanism between the client main application and the client secondary application.

17. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the set of source functions associated with the client secondary application also comprises a source function for stopping the client secondary application that is called by the client main application.

18. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the set of source functions associated with the client secondary application comprises a source function for unsubscription from the service for sending messages originating from the main software application.

19. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the message is a parameter of the source function processing a message from the main software application, and in that the structure of the message forming the parameter comprises: a first field containing information related to the type of the message; a second field containing the specific body of the message.

20. Radiocommunication device according to claim 19 , wherein the message type belongs to the group comprising: message containing a response to a driver command previously sent to the main software application by the client embedded software application; message containing an unsolicited driver command; message containing a driver command sent by a client external software application through the main software application; message containing a response resulting from execution of a driver command sent by the client external software application, by the main software application; message sent on expiration of a timeout.

21. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the sets of source functions associated with the client main application and the client secondary application also comprise at least a source function belonging to the following group: a function for sending at least one driver command to the main software application, a first parameter of the sending function being the at least one driver command, a second parameter of the sending function indicating the application(s) to which the response resulting from execution of the driver command is sent, namely the client main application and/or the client secondary application in the client embedded software application, and/or a client external application included in the client external software application; a registration function with the main software application to a service for reception of unsolicited driver commands, one parameter of the registration function indicating the application(s) to which each of the unsolicited driver commands is to be redirected, namely the client main application and/or the client secondary application included in the client embedded software application, and/or a client external application included in the client external software application; a registration function with the main software application to a driver command preparsing service, in which a parameter of the registration function indicates the destination application(s) namely the client main application and/or the client secondary application included in the client embedded software application and/or the main software application to which each driver command originating from the client external software application must be directed; a registration function with the main software application to a response preparsing service, in which a parameter of the registration function indicates the destination application(s) namely the client main application and/or the client secondary application included in the client embedded software application and/or a client external application included in the client external software application to which each response resulting from the execution of a driver command by the main software application must be directed; a function for sending at least one response to the client external software application, through the main software application, a parameter of the sending function being the at least one response.

22. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the client embedded software application and the main software application each use a distinct part of a RAM, and an attempt by one of the two software application programs to access part of the RAM reserved for the other software application will stop operation.

23. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the set of driver commands is a set of standard AT commands.

24. Radiocommunication device according to claim 23 , wherein the set of driver commands comprises an additional AT command for loading a client software application enabling the external client software application to load a new client software application or a new part of the client software application into the radiocommunication device, in addition to standard AT commands.

25. Radiocommunication device as claimed in claim 23 , wherein the set of driver commands comprises an additional AT command called the deactivate command enabling the client external software application to deactivate the client embedded software application or part of the client embedded software application, in addition to standard AT commands.

26. Process for implementing a client software application for driving a radiocommunication device, the process comprising: hosting and executing a main software application on the radiocommunication module, wherein the main software application performs radiocommunication functions, wherein the main software application executes driver commands sent to the main software application by the client driver software application and belonging to a predetermined set of driver commands, hosting and executing on the radiocommunication module at least one client embedded software application comprising a client main application and at least one client secondary application, slave of the client main application, the processing done by the client embedded software application being distributed between the client main application and the at least one client secondary application, and wherein the client embedded software application and the main software application enable the client embedded software application to perform at least one role of a group of roles comprising: the role of the client driver software application sending driver commands to the main software application, and receiving responses from the main software application resulting from the execution of some of the driver commands; the role of a client supervision software application, managing execution of driver commands sent by the client driver software application, the client driver software application called the client external software application being hosted on and executed by terminal equipment cooperating with the radiocommunication device.